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Hunger pangs in Adivasi houses

Special Correspondent

Survey reveals 99.8 p.c. households could not get two square meals even for one month

JAIPUR: A survey research on the situation of hunger in the tribal-dominated areas of Rajasthan has revealed that a shocking 99 per cent of the Adivasi households were facing chronic hunger. While the field survey was carried out in Udaipur and Dungarpur districts, nearly 48 persons had died of hunger and disease in 40 villages in Baran district during mid-July to mid-September this year.

The New Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) carried out the survey on "Hunger in Adivasi areas of Rajasthan and Jharkhand'' and its report was formally released in the national capital by noted social scientist, Ashis Nandy, on October 14.

The Director of CEFS, Parshuram Rai, said on Tuesday that while about 99 per cent of the Adivasi households had lived with one or another level of endemic hunger and food insecurity throughout 2004, at least 25.2 per cent of tribal households had faced semi-starvation during the previous week of survey and 24.1 per cent throughout the previous month.

The researchers surveyed 500 households in the two districts to find that only two respondents had eaten two square meals the previous day. Five per cent of the surveyed Adivasis could eat only jungle food to survive and 76.6 per cent tribal households said they had not eaten any pulse or animal product.

Mr. Rai said the survey data had suggested that 28.3 per cent of the sample Adivasi households had survived for the whole or significant part of the previous week by eating just one distress meal-a-day or one poor or partial meal-a-day. In other words, 28.3 per cent of sample households lived in semi-starvation condition.

The survey findings conform to another recent investigation that had attributed the death of tribals in Baran district to the chronic energy deficiency leading to weakness of the body constitution and decline in immunity levels of the local population. The probe was carried out by a team led by the State Advisor to the Commissioners appointed by the Supreme Court in right to food matter.

Mr. Rai pointed out that a staggering 99.8 per cent of Adivasi households had said that they could not get two square meals even for one month of the previous year. Therefore, it was clear that over 99 per cent of the surveyed households were facing one or another level of hunger and food insecurity throughout last year. Moreover, out of the 500 sample Adivasi households surveyed in the State, not a single one had secured two square meals for the whole previous year.

The survey report also revealed that 10 per cent of the sample tribal households had to survive only on distress food for 3 to 11 months of the previous year and 22.6 per cent only on one poor or partial meal for 4 to 12 months. In other words, 32.6 per cent of the sample Adivasi households had lived in semi-starvation condition throughout the previous year.

An overwhelming 90.6 per cent of the tribal households said their food security had weakened during last 25 years. The field survey, carried out during March to June in 2004, covered 10 villages each in Udaipur and Dungarpur districts. From every sample village, 25 Adivasi households were purposely selected for the household survey.

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Hunger pangs in Adivasi houses

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